Re: Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A

Originally Posted by warwickmm

Thanks, nexero and dancat! Looking forward to hearing more about how well ubuntu runs on this laptop.

One concern of mine is how small the text will be on the 11.6 in screen. Can someone comment on this? Would you be able to post a screenshot of a web browser on www.nytimes.com with default font sizes and everything? The online reviews of the laptop running Windows seem to indicate that it is shipped with Windows set at 125% dpi scaling, so not sure if I can trust the screenshots in those reviews.

Thanks!

It would be difficult to judge how small text would be with a screenshot. A 1080p screenshot would be identical on an 11.6" and a 21.5" screen, given that the DPI scaling is set at the same value.

An actual picture of the screen (i.e. taking a picture of the laptop screen with an actual camera) would be a better way to check the readability of fonts.

Re: Asus Zenbook Prime UX21A issues

I won't be updating it, since I have the regular Zenbook, but just to get things kickstarted. Please fill in the missing parts. I only added a couple of things I knew / had read, and even within those someone should check if Asus has fixed the BIOS regarding ASPM.

executed in the shell, I get left, right and middle click with 1, 2 and 3 finger tap. nice. two single finger taps allow drag and drop -- requires somewhat precision timing but about 90% of the time i can hit it on the first try.

unfortunately the lcd panel backlight is stuck at '5' and echoing other values into the usual places has no effect. (lcd panel brightness control worked fine in 12.04). and keyboard illumination stuck on. these are about the only issues. note that suspend meets my needs; i have no interest in hibernation so haven't tried it. bootup from full off is something like 15 seconds. incredible.

i'm happy to answer any questions, and would be grateful to hear any suggestions that might get lcd panel brightness working.

executed in the shell, I get left, right and middle click with 1, 2 and 3 finger tap. nice. two single finger taps allow drag and drop -- requires somewhat precision timing but about 90% of the time i can hit it on the first try.

unfortunately the lcd panel backlight is stuck at '5' and echoing other values into the usual places has no effect. (lcd panel brightness control worked fine in 12.04). and keyboard illumination stuck on. these are about the only issues. note that suspend meets my needs; i have no interest in hibernation so haven't tried it. bootup from full off is something like 15 seconds. incredible.

i'm happy to answer any questions, and would be grateful to hear any suggestions that might get lcd panel brightness working.

btw, this is the most beautiful screen i have ever seen.

Are your Fn keys shortcuts working (volume control, etc)?

for brightness control, you can try 'xrandr --brightness 0.4', change the 0,4 with whatever fits you between 0 and 1.

Last edited by dancat; June 24th, 2012 at 08:44 PM.
Reason: spelling error

Re: Asus Zenbook Prime UX21A issues

I have a UX31A and like to help getting things to work. I am using Debian Stable (with some packages from backports and testing up to experimental), but I hope that we can get along nevertheless
The kernel I use is 3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 (backported from testing).

Keyboard functions: Fn+F1 (Suspend): works Fn+F2 (Wireless): works, but does not show anything in 'xev'. Upon boot the LED is off, but wireless works. Pressing Fn+F2 can be used to toggle it off/on, though.Fn+F3 (Keyboard brightness down): does not work
Fn+F4 (Keyboard brightness up): does not work
Fn+F5 (Brightness down): does not work
Fn+F6 (Brightness up): does not work Fn+F7 (LCD on/off): works, but does not show anything in 'xev'Fn+F8 (monitor/external display): untested (but does not show anything in 'xev')
Fn+F9 (Touchpad on/off): does not work
Fn+F10 (Speaker on/off): does not work
Fn+F11 (Volume down): does not work
Fn+F12 (Volume up): does not work
Fn+A (ambient light sensor): does not work
Fn+C (Splendid Video Intelligent Technology): does not work
Fn+V (Life Frame): does not work
Fn+Space (Power4Gear Hybrid): does not work Fn+Up/Down/Left/Right (PgUp, PgDown, Home, End): works

Touchpad:
When typing I often trigger some touchpad actions (movement, clicking) without that intention. Dragging does not work when holding the lower "button" part of the touch pad and moving with another finger in the other part. Right clicks only work by tapping, not by pressing the touchpad down in some specific area.

SD card slot:
Works, but the module rts5139 seems to drain a lot of power.

Sensors:
With the module "coretemp" (put "coretemp" in /etc/modules) I get:

Power Saving Optimizations:
As said, the module rts5139 seems to drain a lot of power.

Bugs and Issues:
My UX31A freezes frequently (about once or twice a day). When it freezes the mouse stops moving, pinging it via wireless does not work anymore. Disabling the screen via Fn+F7 does not work anymore (although it is done in hardware?). I still have to investigate this further, so far I do not see any pattern or clue.

Re: i have an asus ux31a running quantal (ubuntu alpha 12.10)

for brightness control, you can try 'xrandr --brightness 0.4', change the 0,4 with whatever fits you between 0 and 1.

my experience with the Fn buttons generally parallels carstenotto. but that's just a matter of wiring up events to something underlying. in the case of brightness, nothing underlying seems to work any more.

none of the obvious paths to control brightness work in the current 12.10, which uses kernel 3.5.0-1.

i've echo'd to /sys/class/brightness/*, tried xrandr and xbacklight.

in 12.04, the unity brightness control widget worked perfectly. no more.

suggestions welcome.

btw, something unclear or erroneous in some published specs for the ux31a: the i7 model is 1.9ghz not 1.7ghz.